Biography of Charles Nickell

CHARLES NICKELL. – Among the young men of ability and energy in the Pacific Northwest who have come to the front through their own efforts is the gentleman whose name is given above. He is a native of the Golden state, having been born at Yreka in 1856. The advantages for receiving an education in early days were not good; but, notwithstanding this fact, his natural push gave impetus to a spirit to improve each opportunity for storing his mind with that which would fit him for a sphere of usefulness in the future; and so well did he succeed … Read more

Biography of James P. Goodall

JAMES P. GOODALL.- There are some hundreds of men upon our coast whose life experiences embrace as much of romance and adventure as was every told in the pages of Marryat, Irving, or of Smollet. For a full recital of this, we must refer the inquirer to such men as the genial gentleman whose name appears above, that he may in his own home, in the beautiful city of Jacksonville, Oregon, recount as to us the stories of his life upon this coast. He was born at Milledgeville, Georgia, in 1818, and at that city and at Columbus in the … Read more

Biography of Mrs. Frances N. Patton

MRS. FRANCES N. PATTON. – This estimable lady, the daughter of Hon. E. N. and Eliza Cooke was born in Erie county, Ohio, on the 3d day of August, 1837; and the greater portion of her early life was passed in that state. In 1851, at the age of fourteen years, she accompanied her parents across the plains to Oregon, reaching Salem on October 10th of that year. She began attendance at the Willamette University, which up to 1853 was called the Oregon Institute; and from the time her name was first enrolled as a scholar, until she bid adieu … Read more

Simonis, Valeria Denise Macy Mrs. – Obituary

Valeria Denise Simonis, 70, of Baker City, died Jan. 31, 2005, at St. Elizabeth Health Services. A memorial service will be scheduled this summer. Coles Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Valeria was born on March 9, 1934, at Baker City to John and Irma Williams Macy. Her family lived at Jacksonville until she was in the fourth grade, when they returned to Baker City. She married Keith Simonis at Elko, Nev., in 1950. They made their home at North Powder until their divorce. At that time, she and her children moved to Hermiston, where she went to work … Read more

Biography of Rufus Mallory

Rufus Mallory is of New England ancestry, and descended from a strong and hardy stock, well fitted for the furnishing of such elements as are needed to command success and produce laudable results in the new but rapidly growing country in which his lot was cast and where modern civilization has come with such splendid strides. About 1816 his parents left their home in Connecticut for the West, as New York State was then called, and settled in the town of Coventry in Chenango County, at which place the subject of our sketch, the youngest of a family of nine … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Hon. Paine Page Prim

HON. PAINE PAGE PRIM. – Always to be remembered along with such men as Thornton, Strong, Kelly, Lancaster and Boice, among the judiciary lights of our state, is Judge Prim. He is a Tennesseean by birth, and graduated from the law school at Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee, and began his first legal practice at Sparta in White county of the same state. Like many ambitious young men of the East, he looked to the West as his best field, and came to Missouri in 1851, but arriving at Independence, joined an emigrant train and came on to Oregon. arriving in … Read more

Biography of Joseph Gaston

JOSEPH GASTON. – Joseph Gaston, the pioneer railroad man of Oregon, was born in Lloydsville, Belmont county, Ohio, in 1833. His ancestors on is father’s side were Huguenots, who were expelled from France by the Roman Catholic King in the sixteenth century, on account of their adhesion to the protestant reformation. They settled first in Ireland, and from thence in 1562 removed to North Carolina, from whence numerous branches of the family scattered out over the United States. William Gaston, the granduncle of Joseph, was chief justice of North Carolina, and for many years member of Congress from that state, … Read more

Biography of Hon. Benjamin Franklin Dowell

HON. B.F. DOWELL. – Benjamin Franklin Dowell was born in Albemarle county, Virginia, on the 31st of October, 1826. He was named for an uncle of his grandmother on his father’s side. She was a daughter of John Franklin and a niece of Benjamin Franklin, the statesman and philosopher. Mr. Dowell’s father and mother were natives of Virginia, and were born and brought up within one mile of each other. His mother’s maiden name was Fannie Dalton, a woman of rare culture and refinement. The Dowells were originally from England; the Daltons were from the Scottish Highlands. As a child, … Read more

Biography of Henry Klippel

HENRY KLIPPEL. – Mr. Klippel has been intimately connected with the public business and measures of our state, particularly in Southern Oregon. Like the most of our successful men, his progress has been by hard labor, and even by hard knocks; that is, he has, out of the capital of his own hands and brain, gained point after point, and succeeded in stamping his mind and character upon public affairs. He was born in Hesse Darmstadt in 1833, and came to American five years later. After an industrious and active life in the old West, – losing his father by … Read more

Charlton, George Carmi – Obituary

George Charlton, one of the pioneers of Kittitas Valley, died yesterday morning [April 14, 1919] at 7 o’clock at the family residence on a farm northeast of Ellensburg. Mr. Charlton had been suffering for the past seven years with heart trouble, which yesterday caused his death. Mr. Charlton was born in Jacksonville, Oregon, November 4th, 1858, and came to the Kittitas Valley in 1881, where he has made his home ever since. Mr. Charlton was married October 23rd, 1890, to Miss Maude Filer, who still survives him. To this marriage, seven children were born, three girls, Madge, Fern and Mr. … Read more

Biography of Hon. Thomas Patton

HON. THOMAS PATTON. – There is scarcely a man in Oregon, who enjoys a greater measure of esteem, both in his own community and abroad, than the gentleman whose name heads this memoir. With the usual substantial and popular qualities of the pioneers, he has a touch of dash and a breadth of view which lift him somewhat above the horizon of even the first business men and thinkers of the Pacific Northwest. He is prominent among those who have given the tone and pose to the peculiarly refined and genial society of the Capital city. He was born in … Read more

McCully, John W. – Obituary

John W. McCully born. 22 May 1821 New Brunswick; died 20 Jan 1899 Joseph, OR – 67 years 7 months 28 days. In 1822 the family moved to OH, stayed until 1844; 1844-1851 in IA; 1852-1862 resident of Jacksonville, OR; 1862-1867 visited Idaho, Montana, and Missouri – attended medical school in St. Louis. He had studied medicine and become a practitioner in IA. 1868-1878 purser on Willamette River steamboats; 1880-1889, resident of Joseph, OR. He was a member of the last Territorial Legislature, representing Jackson Co. Held “high positions” in the Masons. Obituary (1899) from unidentified newspaper. Contributed By:Sandy Wilbur

Biography of Leander P. McCubbin

The stability of a land depends upon the character of her sons and it is very gratifying to find the citizens who form the population of Wallowa county stanch and capable, and in this worthy number we are constrained to give especial mention to the subject of this sketch, since he has manifested qualities that are deserving of this position and has achieved success that demonstrates his ability to be among the leading financiers and property owners of the northeastern part of Oregon, while also he has maintained an untarnished reputation and displayed a well rounded character replete with the … Read more

Biography of Gen. John E. Ross

GEN. JOHN E. ROSS. – No view of our state would be complete without the figure of General Ross, who was so prominent as Indian fighter and legislator in the early days. he was born in Ohio in 1818, and after a residence in Indiana and Illinois, being married at Chicago to the daughter of Alexander Robinson of that city, whose loss by death he suffered eight years later, he came to the Pacific coast, arriving in Oregon in 1847. He was captain of a company that crossed the plains, and soon after reaching the Grande Ronde came upon some … Read more

Biography of Hon. Orange Jacobs

HON. ORANGE JACOBS. – Hon. Orange Jacobs is a son of new York, a state which is the first in wealth, population, trade, manufactures and commerce, and first in the number of her sons and daught4ers who had gone out to make homes in other regions, and to develop their resources with New York brain and brawn. Virginia claims the proud distinction of being the “Mother of Presidents;” and New York could claim the prouder title of being “the mother of States and Territories.” In 1880 the Empire state had more than one million two hundred and fifty thousand sons … Read more

Biography of Joseph Pinkham

Canada has furnished to the United States many bright, enterprising young men who have left the Dominion to enter the business circles of this country with its more progressive methods, livelier competition and advancement more quickly secured. Among this number is Mr. Pinkham. He has somewhat of the strong, rugged and persevering characteristics developed by his earlier environments, which, coupled with the livelier impulses of the New England blood of his ancestors, made him at an early day seek wider fields in which to give full scope to his ambition and industry his dominant qualities. He found the opportunity he … Read more

Biography of Isham E. Saling

ISHAM E. SALING. – The gentleman whose name appears above is the leading merchant in the thriving city of Weston, Oregon. He came to his position by that firm and steady application to business which is everywhere the guaranty of success. Mr. Saling is a native of Monroe county, Missouri, and was born in 1830. In 1852 he came to Oregon across the plains. At Salmon Falls on the Snake he exchanged his oxen for horses, packing in from that point to the Jacksonville mines, and remaining in that section until 1855. Coming to Yamhill county he engaged in farming … Read more